Spatial extract, transform, load (spatial ETL), also known as geospatial transformation and load (GTL), is a process for managing and manipulating geospatial data, for example map data.
It is a type of extract, transform, load (ETL) process, with software tools and libraries specialised for geographical information.
[1] A common use of spatial ETL is to convert geographical information from a data source into another format that can be more easily used, for example by importing it into GIS software.
Traditionally, GIS applications have had the ability to read or import a limited number of spatial data formats, but with few specialist ETL transformation tools; the concept being to import data then carry out step-by-step transformation or analysis within the GIS application itself.
Conversely, spatial ETL does not require the user to import or view the data, and generally carries out its tasks in a single predefined process.